Photo Credit: From the Steinfeldt Photography Collection of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.

This image is titled “Women and Children on an Outing.” It depicts “A group of women and children, notable for the fact that there is a woman in the driver’s seat.”

It was taken in or around 1919, by someone Jewish in St. Paul, Minnesota. Everybody in the picture is, presumably, Jewish. And, since most of the images in the collection of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest was connected to the local synagogues, we can also presume they were religious, according to American standards in the early 1900s.

When was the last time we became thrilled at the image of a woman driving a car? Back in 2011, when Saudi women -–all of 40 of them – drove their cars in public in protest.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving.

Women in Saudi Arabia are not permitted to vote or to leave their homes without a male guardian. Some restaurants have even refused to serve women who are not with a close male relative.

But there’s good news: King Abdullah has declared that women will be able to vote and run in the 2015 local elections, and be appointed to the Consultative Assembly.

About the Author:Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and
two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.

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